Long-Term Evolution: Samsung to strike Apple's iPhone 5

Apple vs Samsung war is escalating, with reports that Samsung has now planned to strike Apple with new lawsuits if the iPhone5 comes with LTE (Long-Term Evolution) enabled, a feature most important for iPhone’s success.

According to new reports, the Korean technology giant is planning retaliatory action following a recent court verdict in the United States where it was asked to pay about $1.05billion for imitating iPhone designs.

Samsung says it holds the patents for LTE and Apple better not introduce it in the new phone that is expected to be announced on September 12.

This follows Apple’s decision to include Samsung’s new flagship smartphone the Galaxy S3 into the list of phones it wants to be banned terming it a copycat product. This takes the tally of total Samsung products in Apple’s hit list to 21.

Emirates24|7 had earlier reported that the next generation iPhone will be LTE-enabled and could work in the UAE.

LTE enables speeds up to 10 times faster when compared to the 3G speed that is used by the iPhone4S.

It was widely expected that the iPhone4S would be 4G compatible. But to everyone’s disappointment it could only handle 3G.

However, Apple introduced 4G LTE on its new iPad and it is expected to be incorporated into the new phone as well.

While the 4G LTE on the new iPad only works on 700Mhz spectrum, it is expected that the new iPhone will support 4G LTE on 1800Mhz spectrum.

For Apple though, opting out of LTE would mean sticking with a phone capable of much lower internet speed.

According to Korea Times, Samsung is preparing to counter attack Apple in 50 different patent disputes in 10 different countries.

It has also initiated talks with telecom carriers in the US and with Microsoft.

“Samsung has been in talks with major US carriers to jointly develop modified design technology. This will be effective, though we can’t unveil more details for the time being,” the report said quoting an official from the company’s telecommunications division.